SRINAGAR: In a bizarre turn of events, Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and incumbent Omar Abdullah on Friday chose to engage themselves in a public spat on social media over the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) which is believed to have proved pernicious for the erstwhile state’s energy harnessing potential.The two did not restrict their brouhaha to the IWT but also sought to dig into each other’s political pasts to score points, prompting many social media users to accuse them of trying to run each other down even during national challenges. “We all know they are sworn bête noires and their mutual attacks and criticisms on social media and beyond are rooted in personal animosity and ideological divides. But it is bad that they chose to target each other publicly when the people of Kashmir are going through tough times and crave steady leadership and solutions, not public bickering from figures like Omar and Mehbooba,” said one of them. It all started with Mufti’s terming Abdullah’s seeking the revival of the Tulbul navigation barrage project on the River Jhelum at the mouth of Wular Lake — Asia’s largest freshwater lake — located near J&K’s Bandipore town ill-timed; hence irresponsible and dangerously provocative. India had in 1984 proposed to build the barrage, expected to be 439-feet long and 40-feet wide with a maximum storage capacity of 0.30 million acres feet of water, saying it would make the river navigable in summer. But Pakistan objected to it, claiming it violated the IWT signed by the two countries in 1960. On April 24, India, in a raft of measures to downgrade ties with Pakistan following the deadly terror attack at Pahalgam, put the IWT, arranged and negotiated by the World Bank and which divides up control between the two countries of several rivers draining into the Indus River basin, in abeyance and vowed that not one drop of water would cross the border. Abdullah on Thursday wondered if work could resume on the barrage project in view of the suspension of the IWT. He posted a video of the barrage site on ‘X’ and said that the project had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the IWT. “Now that the IWT has been ‘temporarily suspended’ I wonder if we will be able to resume the project,” he asked. He said the Tulbul project, if completed, “will give us the advantage of allowing us to use the Jhelum for navigation. It will also improve the power generation of downstream power projects, especially in winter.” Mufti termed the Chief Minister’s call for reviving the project amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan as “deeply unfortunate”. She wrote on ‘X’, “At a time when both countries have just stepped back from the brink of a full-fledged war — with Jammu and Kashmir bearing the brunt through the loss of innocent lives, widespread destruction and immense suffering — such statements are not only irresponsible but also dangerously provocative”. She added, “Our people deserve peace as much as anyone else in the country. Weaponizing something as essential and life-giving as water is not only inhumane but also risks internationalizing what should remain a bilateral matter.” Taking strong exception to opposition leader’s criticism, the Chief Minister replied, “Actually what is unfortunate is that with your blind lust to try to score cheap publicity points & please some people sitting across the border, you refuse to acknowledge that the IWT has been one of the biggest historic betrayals of the interests of the people of J&K”. He said he had always opposed the IWT and will continue to do so, asserting, “Opposing a blatantly unfair treaty is in no way, shape, size or form warmongering, it’s about correcting a historic injustice that denied the people of J&K the right to use our water for ourselves.” Responding to the allegation that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader was trying to please some people sitting across the border,. Mufti said, “Time will reveal who seeks to appease whom. However, it’s worth recalling that your esteemed grandfather Sheikh (Muhammad Abdullah) Sahab once advocated for accession to Pakistan for over two decades after losing power. But post being reinstated as Chief Minister (in 1995), he suddenly reversed his stance by aligning with India”. She said, “In contrast the PDP has consistently upheld its convictions & commitments & unlike your party whose loyalties have shifted dramatically according to political expediency. We don’t need to stoke tensions or adopt warmongering rhetoric to validate our dedication. Our actions speak for themselves.” Abdullah did not take it lightly either. Responding, he said, “Is that really the best you can do? Taking cheap shots at a person you yourself have called Kashmir’s tallest leader. I’ll rise above the gutter you want to take this conversation to by keeping the late Mufti (Sayeed) Sahab and “North Pole South Pole” (as he had called the PDP’s alliance with the BJP to cobble up a government in J&K in 2015) out of this. You keep advocating the interests of anyone you want to & I’ll keep advocating for the interests of the people of J&K to use our own rivers for our own benefit. I’m not going to stop the water, just use more of it for ourselves. Now I think I’ll do some real work & you can keep posting.” Abdullah added the screenshot of a news story that quoted Mufti, then chief minister, as saying that J&K has suffered due to the IWT because no big dams or power projects can be built on Jhelum, Indus or Chenab river because of it and said, “Just leaving this out there because “consistency” is in such short supply.” In her response, Mufti said that the PDP has consistently called for the return of power projects that Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) handed over to National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) “on a platter at a pittance”. She claimed that even in the PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance, it was agreed that two projects would be returned to J&K to compensate for losses from the IWT. She said, “During my meeting with the Prime Minister in 2017 now misrepresented by (a TV news channel) the issue of compensation under the IWT was clearly discussed. But let me be clear – We never advocated scrapping the treaty. Such a move could heighten tensions and once again place J&K at the epicentre of conflict. Our resources like water must be used for life, not as weapons. Your invoking IWT now is a reckless ploy to derail the ceasefire. There’s nothing patriotic about fuelling instability.”
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